ELi5 Why are fevers so dangerous? If they’re an immune system mechanism, shouldn’t there also be a biological “emergency stop/ brain overheating” button?
In: Biology
All living organisms (that we know of) are made up of proteins – many many many proteins. All proteins have a maximum temperature they can survive before they literally unravel and die.
The body eventually figured out that if it raised its own temperature, it will exceed the temp at which the bacteria can survive, and they’ll die, and infection cured. Problem is that the temperature most bacteria die at, and the temperature the cells in your own body die at, is… pretty close.
So a runaway fever can literally bake you to death, because the body’s fever-regulating mechanism kinda got left in alpha and never got debugged. So, a fever up to 101-102 is… not great, but not fatal, but if it goes any higher than that, it sure as shit can be.
It is… yet another argument against intelligent design, frankly. But that’s what tylenol is for!
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